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Inverse opal photoelectrode of Nb-doped TiO2 nanoparticles for dye-sensitized solar cell

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Abstract

In this study, Nb-doped TiO2 nanoparticles were prepared by solution synthesis, and utilized as photoelectrode for dye-sensitized solar cell aiming to obtain better photon-to-current conversion efficiency. Nb doping was carried out using two different Nb precursors, and subsequent hydrothermal treatment resulted in the size-controlled (~10 nm) Nb-doped TiO2 nanoparticles with typical ellipsoidal shapes and anatase morphologies. It was observed that NbCl2 precursor resulted in more uniform particle size, while Nb oxalate resulted in relatively broader particle size distributions and higher aspect ratio ellipsoid. Using these nanoparticles, 10 μm-thick porous inverse opal (IO) photoelectrodes were fabricated by coating the mixed aqueous dispersions of Nb-TiO2 nanoparticles and polystyrene particles of 270 nm diameter on conductive glass followed by thermal sintering. DSSC single cell performance tests revealed that a photoelectrode from 2 mol% Nb- TiO2 obtained from NbCl2 exhibited 20 % enhancement for solar cell efficiency compared to bare TiO2 IO.

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Acknowledgments

This study was financially supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2013R1A1A2011168), and partially supported by Civil Military Technology Cooperation Center (CMTC) (15-CM-EN-08).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Sejong University, 98 Gunja-Dong, Gwangjin-Gu, Seoul, 143–747, Republic of Korea

    Wonmok Lee & Seulki Kim

  2. School of Advanced Materials Engineering, Kookmin University, 861-1 Jeongneung-Dong, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Jonghyeon Kang & Hyunjung Lee

  3. Korea Institute of Ceramic Engineering and Technology, Icheon, Gyeonggi, 467-843, Republic of Korea

    Kyusung Han

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  1. Wonmok Lee
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  2. Seulki Kim
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  3. Jonghyeon Kang
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  4. Kyusung Han
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  5. Hyunjung Lee
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Correspondence to Wonmok Lee or Hyunjung Lee.

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Lee, W., Kim, S., Kang, J. et al. Inverse opal photoelectrode of Nb-doped TiO2 nanoparticles for dye-sensitized solar cell. Polym. Bull. 73, 2547–2555 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-016-1684-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-016-1684-5

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